Collectible and trading card games are well known in the art and have proven to be very successful with children and adults of all ages. Such games are normally played using a deck of cards, which may be expanded through purchase of expansion sets, or buying or trading individual cards. Additional cards may also be obtained through winning cards from an opponent during game play. Examples of such games include “battle” games, wherein two or more players compete against one another using their cards to score points or reduce the other players' score until a player wins. Such games often use fantasy elements, such as real or mythical creatures and characters displayed on each card. Each card may have its own power or effect on other cards, and the players use strategy to determine the proper time to play cards having certain effects.
Although fantasy card games have proven to be very popular with children and young adults, such games are often banned from the classroom, because they lack formal educational value, and can be distracting from the prescribed coursework. Because students that play these games often become preoccupied with the games instead of focusing on their studies, the playing of such games in educational settings is generally frowned upon.
Word building games are also known in the art. Scrabble® is a well known board game wherein at least two players form words on a board using letter tiles. Each letter tile has a point value, and a player wins points by forming a word with his letter tiles and summing the points of each letter tile used to form the word. Each player takes turns forming a single word in a crossword puzzle like manner, building off of words already formed on the board until a player wins. The board contains tile spaces for each tile. Certain tile spaces have score multipliers, such that the tile on that space, or a word having a letter tile that covers that space, will be worth additional points.